I used to watch a bit many years ago on my days off when my routine meant I sat down to eat breakfast when WWE happened to be on. I always looked at it as entertainment in the same vein as the Rocky films.

Eddie's death and Rey's ridiculous 1st (last? I have no idea now) title reign where he was beaten by everyone hurt my enjoyment but it was Benoit's shocking end that just destroy any feel good factor for me.

Eddie's death and Rey's ridiculous 1st (last? I have no idea now) title reign where he was beaten by everyone hurt my enjoyment but it was Benoit's shocking end that just destroy any feel good factor for me.

Eddie's Death was a big shock to me as I'd recorded SmackDown the night before and then heard the news whilst watching his match against the then Mr Kennedy.

Regarding Rey Mysterio (Two reigns, one WHC and one WWEC by the way), I agreed that his first reign was pretty bad, the whole thing felt like a giant cash-in on Guerrero's death. Though watching his Rumble win at the time was rather exciting for me.

Benoit's demise was absolutely terrible and killed off a lot of passion from fans in the balance at the time. I don't agree with the way it's been handled now with the WWE removing any evidence of him ever existing in their archives, I understand that he'll never get a Hall of Fame ring but to completely cut out his legacy in the world of wrestling?

Eddie's death and Rey's ridiculous 1st (last? I have no idea now) title reign where he was beaten by everyone hurt my enjoyment but it was Benoit's shocking end that just destroy any feel good factor for me.

Eddie's Death was a big shock to me as I'd recorded SmackDown the night before and then heard the news whilst watching his match against the then Mr Kennedy.

Regarding Rey Mysterio (Two reigns, one WHC and one WWEC by the way), I agreed that his first reign was pretty bad, the whole thing felt like a giant cash-in on Guerrero's death. Though watching his Rumble win at the time was rather exciting for me.

Benoit's demise was absolutely terrible and killed off a lot of passion from fans in the balance at the time. I don't agree with the way it's been handled now with the WWE removing any evidence of him ever existing in their archives, I understand that he'll never get a Hall of Fame ring but to completely cut out his legacy in the world of wrestling?

Anyway, thank's for the reply Zombellic

I recall seeing a recap of Orton's career on they managed to show him lifting his 1st championship without showing any sign of Benoit. TBH I can't blame them at all I think any TV show or sport would avoid any reference.

Zombellic said
I recall seeing a recap of Orton's career on they managed to show him lifting his 1st championship without showing any sign of Benoit. TBH I can't blame them at all I think any TV show or sport would avoid any reference.

I don't blame them but I disagree that it would be the same in any sport. For instance say a Michael Jordan or a David Beckham, if they committed something as outrageous as Benoit it wuold be a shock, their name would become a point to avoid, however I doubt the NBA or FIFA or some other legitimate sports organisation would remove all known footage from their matches. With the WWE it's different because they produce a scripted product and are seen in some cases as a violent soap opera and on that feel as though they can write a character out if need be.

I don't know, what happened was a tragedy yes but it's not going to stop me enjoying an old Benoit/Pegasus Kid match (if I can find them one), just not likely to go out wearing a 'Toothless Aggression' t shirt anytime soon.

Zombellic said
I recall seeing a recap of Orton's career on they managed to show him lifting his 1st championship without showing any sign of Benoit. TBH I can't blame them at all I think any TV show or sport would avoid any reference.

I don't blame them but I disagree that it would be the same in any sport. For instance say a Michael Jordan or a David Beckham, if they committed something as outrageous as Benoit it wuold be a shock, their name would become a point to avoid, however I doubt the NBA or FIFA or some other legitimate sports organisation would remove all known footage from their matches. With the WWE it's different because they produce a scripted product and are seen in some cases as a violent soap opera and on that feel as though they can write a character out if need be.

I don't know, what happened was a tragedy yes but it's not going to stop me enjoying an old Benoit/Pegasus Kid match (if I can find them one), just not likely to go out wearing a 'Toothless Aggression' t shirt anytime soon.

On that I'm going to back away from Benoit now.

I know this thread is pretty old lol but the way they treated the whole Benoit thing was pretty awful. He was and still is my favourite wrestler and the WWE should have dealt with it and gone into the dangers of steroid use and brain injury but not they just swept it all under the carpet.

spikeychris said
I know this thread is pretty old lol but the way they treated the whole Benoit thing was pretty awful. He was and still is my favourite wrestler and the WWE should have dealt with it and gone into the dangers of steroid use and brain injury but not they just swept it all under the carpet.

the thread is pretty old but it's never too late to talk about Wrestling.

I think awful is a bit strong, I can understand why the WWE acted the way they did at the time. If you think back about all of the times the WWE have landed themselves in hot water over encouraging violence in children, then it shouldn't be too surprising that the're going to act strongly to squash any issue before it happens. I remember a story hitting the news in 01 about a boy who'd killed his younger sister trying to 'play wrestling' and that caused Channel 4 to completely drop Sunday Night Heat.

Though again, removing any evidence of the man's career in Pro-wrestling ever existing (in my opinion) is probably too far. I think a better resolution would have been to pull any merchandise and DVDs from the store, kept his name out of the HoF and not bring attention to him, but kept his matches in the archives to use for compilations and call backs for other wrestlers.

There is word now that McMahon is finally looking at using some of this 'banned' footage in future and that's a smart move as Benoit has been involved in some huge moments for other wrestlers' careers. For instance, Benoit Vs Jericho at Royal Rumble 01' is one of the greatest ladder matches of all time, Randy Orton's first World Heavyweight Championship win at Summerslam 04' and of course the Eddie/Benoit celebration at Wrestlemania XX.

As for saying they "...just swept it all under the carpet", I'd have to disagree. Following Benoit's demise the WWE put into place a more rigorous wellness program which resulted in some huge suspensions and firings. New rules came into place to ban bad language, blood (blading), and sexually themed storylines, which changed their rating from TV-14 to PG. More importantly, as well as being one of the first sporting companies to start funding research into the long lasting dangers of concussions, the WWE also decided to abolish chair shots to the head completely.